Review – Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

So I just beat Ys IX. It was… better than I was expecting, but not as good as it could be. It takes nearly every feature and system from Ys VIII – features and systems, mind you, that were new and specifically built to work in that game’s very particular setting – and brings them whole hog into this new game, with a very different setting. Suffice to say that it doesn’t really work.

For example, in Ys VIII it made sense to earn rewards for mapping out the island, since it was literally uncharted. But it seems insane to be rewarded for mapping out a centuries old city (under the guise of “finding the places that tourists would be most interested in”).

Similarly, it made sense to have a crafting system on an island with no shops, and a bartering system that allows you to refine low grade crafting materials by essentially trading for them. But Ys IX has so many different shops – with so much good gear – that forging your own weapons usually isn’t worth it (meanwhile, you refine items by interacting with a magic lantern. They didn’t even try to come up with a halfway decent cover story for keeping the feature).

Thankfully, you can ignore many of these holdover systems (or, in some cases, you only have to apply a minimum amount of effort to get anything out of them). In the end, they’re not harmful or time consuming, but they also don’t need to be there.

The fact that they do exist is telling. But before we talk about why, let’s establish a little bit of context.

Ys VIII was a pretty big deal for developer Nihon Falcom. It was popular – popular enough to be ported to four platforms in the span of three years (with a Stadia version coming out last year, for whatever that’s worth). It arguably brought in a whole bunch of new fans to the series, which doesn’t sound like a bad thing, until you consider why it did, and who these fans are.

In theory, Nihon Falcom is still the “little studio that could,” cranking out niche games and doing their own thing while remaining independent. In practice, however, their output from recent years has been increasingly devoted to pandering to the specific kind of otaku/weeb who will pay top dollar for anything that provides them with cliches, cheesecake, and waifus.

The most obvious example of this shift can be seen in the Kiseki games. The original “Trails in the Sky” trilogy looks like a simple, generic 90’s adventure anime. But the latest slate of games, Trails of Cold Steel, look like a harem anime that takes place in a military academy. Even without playing any of the games, I can tell there’s been a notable shift in… um… priorities over time. But if you don’t believe me, I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Also there is some VR thing. I’m honestly too afraid to do any more research on that.

Now consider the fact that Falcom seems to prioritize new Kiseki games, while Ys continues to come out at a fairly slow clip. I don’t think this is a coincidence. As soon as the Cold Steel games began being localized, I noticed a sharp uptick in Kiseki-related chatter across the Internet. The pandering, it seems, has worked out very well financially for Falcom.

But this is not to say that Ys is immune from similar changes. Without going into a full review, suffice to say that Ys VIII throws away a lot of what made the series special in favor of becoming a big, bloated, generic action RPG. One with lots of waifus, who spend a lot of time crushing on Adol (though the male characters also spend a lot of time praising him). And because the game takes place on a deserted island, these are by and large the only character interactions you can look forward to. 

Also, this happens.

Having played all of the previous Ys games, I can tell you with certainty that this kind of stuff simply did not exist in earlier games. In fact, I was impressed at how Falcom resisted such blatant fanservice. As a long time fan, this shift in tone was jarring to say the least.

But as I said before, it sold a heck of a lot of copies, and it brought in a lot of new fans.

But these new fans are a fickle bunch. I know the type. They don’t want the studio to try new things. I believe they’d rather see Falcom become a one trick pony, delivering the same formless animu pandering time after time.

And yet! If they fail to do so, they risk alienating a huge chunk of this new fanbase – and if experience tells me anything, it’s that it’s a matter of “when”, not “if,” you do something to alienate them.

Meanwhile, by the time that happens, most of Falcom’s older, dedicated audience will have already given up, leaving the company with virtually no customer base.

Basically, Falcom needs to make a choice. They can either sacrifice artistic merit for record sales (by catering to the new fans), or they can stick to their guns and (probably) struggle to keep the lights on (by appealing to the smaller, older fanbase).

And this is where Ys IX comes into play. I think the game is proof that the studio hasn’t quite made up its mind on which direction to go. It has all that vestigial baggage from Ys VIII because I think the studio was afraid. Afraid that if it wasn’t present, that all the new fans that came in via VIII would complain. But they clearly weren’t interested in it, so they made it largely skippable.

Then there’s the fact in many other ways, Ys IX feels like a return to form. It’s shorter than VIII by quite a lot (I’d say it’s roughly half as long). It focuses much less on Adol and far, far more on the city and its residents (and when it does focus on Adol, it does a much better job of fleshing him out as a person). The combat system is identical to VIII, but not quite as grindy. Battles are faster and easier in a way that reminds me of the combat systems of the older games. There’s also a renewed focus on the history of Ys’ alt-European setting. 

There’s still some pandering to be found, but it’s largely ignorable. It feels like a classic Falcom game again. My (wholly unsubstantiated) theory is that they did this on purpose, as a test of sorts. If Ys IX fails to sell as well as VIII, I am certain we’ll see nothing but pandering for the foreseeable future. However, if it does do well – or at least well enough – there may be a chance for a course correction.

Cynically, my gut already knows what’s going to happen. If that’s the case, my days as an Ys fan may be numbered. At least I got one last (mostly) pleasant adventure out of it.